


Exit, pursued by Bear

by chick_with_wifi, fvandomtrvsh



Series: "Really, Moms?" [2]
Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/F, Families of Choice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-18
Updated: 2017-11-18
Packaged: 2019-02-04 00:51:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12759735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chick_with_wifi/pseuds/chick_with_wifi, https://archiveofourown.org/users/fvandomtrvsh/pseuds/fvandomtrvsh
Summary: Sometimes a family is two assassins, a teenage Russian spy, a dog called Bear and a sentient AI. And their lives are far from boring.





	Exit, pursued by Bear

When Shaw arrived home after taking Bear for a walk, the entire house was in disarray. ‘I was only gone 15 minutes,’ she thought tiredly. ‘How much havoc can Root have caused?’

A lot was the answer, apparently. She followed the trail of wreckage, concluding that Root had to be at the end of it. The trail led from the door to the living room, up the stairs, along the corridor and finally into their bedroom. There was so much mess that Shaw would have been impressed if she wasn’t so frustrated. Ok, she was a little impressed.

As predicted, she found Root sitting in the middle of their bedroom floor, surrounded by a pile of pieces of wood and screws that looked suspiciously like something from Ikea. Halfway across the room, lying haphazardly as though it had been thrown in a fit of rage, was the instruction manual. 

Clearly Root hadn’t heard her come in, because she was still doing mighty battle with a spanner while trying to remove a screw from one of the pieces of wood. Her lips were pursed in concentration, she had her hair tied in a loose braid and was wearing a dark green bomber jacket that was at least two sizes too big for her. She lost her grip on the spanner, causing her hand to smack against the wood, and muttered a curse.

“Are you having a midlife crisis or something?” Shaw asked.

At the sound of her voice, Root stiffened. But as soon as she realised who it was she turned around and fixed Shaw with a wide smile. “Sameen, you’re back!”

“Did we get robbed while I was out and you decided to buy - sorry, steal - all new furniture and hope I wouldn’t notice?”

“Nothing quite so drastic,” Root said. “I just wanted to change the curtains, but then they didn’t match the sofa and things got out of hand.”

Shaw made a point of surveying the room, “No kidding.”

“Sorry. I’ll do my best to have everything sorted by tonight.” She went back to wrenching the spanner, unsuccessfully.

Squatting down next to her, Shaw gently took the piece of wood out of her hands. “Here, let me.” With one precise movement she got the screw out and handed it back to Root.

“Thanks. But you didn’t have to make it look so easy.”

“I guess typing is more your thing, huh?”

“Yeah.” Root glanced at the clock and blinked in surprise. “I didn’t realise it had gotten so late. It’s almost time to pick Gen up from school.”

“Yeah about that,” Shaw said awkwardly. “The principal called a few minutes ago and asked if we could come in a bit earlier to speak to him. He didn’t say what it was about, just that Gen had been called into his office and he needed to discuss it with us.”

“Oh wow.” Root looked mildly worried. “What do you think she did?”

Shaw shrugged. “No idea. Can’t have been that bad though. She’s a good kid. It was probably just a misunderstanding.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Root said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just that you two have been spending a lot of time together and I wouldn’t be surprised if you started to rub off onto her a little bit. She already had the attitude, after all.” Root’s eyes were sparkling with mischief, which dragged a begrudging smile out of Shaw.

“Only one way to find out,” Shaw said as she stood. “Let’s go.” She offered her hand to Root and helped her up. Then on their way out of the room, she held the door open for Root with a mock bow.

The pair got into their car and drove to Gen’s school with fifteen minutes left before the bell rang to dismiss the students. They knocked on the door of the principal’s office, hoping he was expecting them, and were greeted with a curt “come in.”

Shaw pushed open the door and the principal motioned for them to sit down. “Mrs and Mrs Shaw, thank you for coming. It’s nice to see you again. As I mentioned over the phone, Genrika found herself in a spot of trouble earlier today.”

“We’re sure it was just a misunderstanding, Principal. Everything will be cleared up in no time,” Root said in a smooth tone that Shaw recognised as the one she used when undercover.

“I think you’ll find, Mrs Shaw, that it wasn’t a misunderstanding. Genrika punched another student in the face and did quite a bit of damage.”

“Oh,” was all Root could say. She looked slightly taken aback, but it only lasted for a second.

“I taught her how to do that,” Shaw said with slightly more pride than was situationally appropriate.

“Not helping, Sweetie,” Root hissed. Shaw just shrugged. It wasn’t her fault punching people was frowned upon in polite society.

“The student in question had just ‘made a pass at her’ - as Genrika phrased it - then asked her out on a date. She said no and turned away, but he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back. So she punched him, then when the teacher suggested she should have heard him out, Genrika proceeded to lecture him in front of the entire class about how he was teaching boys it was ok to touch girls against their will and ignore them when they say no, and suggested he ought to quit teaching if that was his attitude. Then added that men like him are why her moms taught her to throw a punch.”

“That’s true, I did teach her how to punch,” Shaw said.

Root gave her a ‘seriously?’ look that was so withering it made Shaw break eye contact.

“I see,” the principal said, looking at them from over his glasses then proceeding to stare them down for a few uncomfortable seconds.

“Thank you for letting us know,” Root said eventually when it became clear that nobody else was going to say anything. “We will definitely speak to Gen about this.”

The principal nodded. “Alright. You are dismissed.”

As Root and Shaw made their way out of the room, Shaw muttered, “Dismissed? We aren’t his students.”

They found Gen sitting on one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs outside the principal’s office, twiddling her thumbs and looking supremely bored. When the door opened she automatically looked up, then smiled when she realised who it was and stood up. “Moms! Principal Wood told me to wait out here after class. Is this about me punching that dou-”

“Gen, darling,” Root interrupted hastily, indicating with her eyes to the still-open door. “Not within earshot of the principal.”

“Right, sorry,” Gen said. They began walking in the direction of the exit and she continued, “Anyway, he totally deserved it.”

“I’m sure he did,” Shaw said. “The principal just told us what he did. If you hadn’t taken care of it I woulda punched him myself. And that stuff you said was spot on.”

Root smiled proudly. “Those are my girls.” Then she took Shaw’s hand and asked, “Wanna get out of here?”

“I thought you’d never ask,” Shaw said.

Gen made a face. “Eww. Do you two ever stop flirting?”

-

That evening, Shaw was sitting by herself in the living room and enjoying some well-deserved quiet time after she and Gen had helped Root assemble all her new furniture. Those two had gone out with Bear and promised to bring chinese takeaway back with them. 

Shaw was about to see what was on tv when her phone rang with the special ringtone she had set for their boss, ‘welcome to the machine’ by Pink Floyd.

Grudgingly she picked up and said, “Hello?”

“PRIMARY ASSET SHAW, ANALOG INTERFACE IS BEHAVING IRRESPONSIBLY.”

Shaw groaned. “Ugh, I just sat down”

“87% CHANCE OF INJURY.”

“Why didn't you say so? I’m on my way.” 

She leapt out of her seat and was halfway out of the door, coat on one arm and beanie in hand, when the Machine said, “I HAVEN’T GIVEN YOU HER LOCATION YET.”

Shaw paused to finish putting her coat on. “...I knew that”

“RIGHT.”

“Oh great, now the AI understands sarcasm. Was living with Root and Gen not enough, You needed to get in on the act too?”

“YOU KNOW ME WELL. BY THE WAY, ANALOG INTERFACE IS IN THE PARK.”

Shaw broke off at a jog and when she got to the park she found Gen sitting on a picnic mat on the grass, with a hamper of food next to her.

“Hey,” Shaw said as she approached. “You guys having a picnic without me? And where are Root and Bear?”

Gen smiled at her. “I wanted to invite you, considering food and Bear are your two favorite things, but Root said you wanted some alone time. She also said that some of the other parents from the PTA hang out here and some of them found you - and I quote - scary and intimidating last time you went to a PTA meeting.” 

“Well what can I say, I don’t get on well with soccer moms. But where’s Roo…”

She was cut off by a shout and then frisbee flew next to her head, close enough to have shaved some of her hair off.

“Sorry!” Root, closely followed by Bear, raced up to Shaw and bent down to retrieve her frisbee. “Didn’t realise you were there. What brings you here?”

“The machine called, said you were in danger.” Shaw turned to give the stink eye to the nearest security camera before squatting down to scratch Bear behind the ears. “Doesn’t seem like it though.”

“You should have seen her earlier,” Gen cut in. “Brad threw the frisbee and it nearly hit her in the head.” 

Shaw’s head snapped up. “Who is this Brad character?”

Gen giggled at Shaw’s instantaneous reaction and pointed. “He’s the tall guy over there in the grey t shirt.”

“I’ve half a mind to march over there and teach him a lesson. Nobody throws a frisbee at my wife and gets away with it.” She stood up and pushed her sleeves up to her elbows.

“At ease, soldier,” Root said, placing a hand on Shaw’s arm. “We don’t need two of us in trouble for fighting in one day.”

Shaw shook Root’s hand off her arm. “Shut up, I’m busy defending your honour.”

“Aww Sweetie, you do care.” Root placed her hand over her heart in mock-surprise.

“Don’t get used to it.” Shaw set off in the direction of Brad, but Gen grabbed her hand to stop her. “What-?”

“You can’t go over there,” Gen said quickly while tugging on Shaw’s arm for her to return to their picnic mat. “Bram is Alex’s dad and I don’t want you to embarrass me.”

“Who’s Alex?” Shaw asked at the exact time that Root said, “Ohhh. Now I see why you wanted to come here.”

Gen had turned bright red and relinquished her grip on Shaw as soon as it became clear that she was no longer about to go confront Brad.

“So, who is this mysterious Alex?” Root asked, giving Gen a knowing look and gently elbowing her for good measure.

“Nobody…” Gen blushed even harder.

“Gen has a crush!” Root whisper-shrieked. “Sameen, Gen has a crush!”

“I noticed,” Shaw deadpans. “Root, Gen literally just said she doesn’t want to be embarrassed yet you're doing it anyway.”

“I’m sorry. It’s just that this is a really momentous occasion. Gen, how long have you known this Alex then?” Root asked.

“Sorry, Moms. Gotta go!” Gen threw the frisbee and ran after it, pursued by Bear.

**Author's Note:**

> Partly inspired by this tumblr post: http://dancing-clone-sestras.tumblr.com/post/161706076694/sherlocklikesdestiel-heaven-is-my-hell-so-my


End file.
